


These Ghosts Are Haunting Me

by QuickSilverFox3



Series: Whumptober 2020 [16]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Booker | Sebastien le Livre Whump, Character Death, Drabble Sequence, Established Relationship, Exiled Booker | Sebastien le Livre, F/M, Gen, Hallucinations, M/M, Mental Breakdown, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:33:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27248857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuickSilverFox3/pseuds/QuickSilverFox3
Summary: “You’re not real. You can’t be,” Booker insisted, squeezing Joe’s fingers tight as if that would make him disappear.[No 16. A TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY Forced to Beg | Hallucinations | Shoot the Hostage]
Relationships: Booker | Sebastien le Livre & Quynh | Noriko, Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolo di Genova, Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Nile Freeman, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolo di Genova
Series: Whumptober 2020 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947016
Comments: 8
Kudos: 101
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	These Ghosts Are Haunting Me

**Author's Note:**

> The first 6 are the usual snapshot scenes, while the last 4 are a mini fic [from a prompt off of the lovely TheSparklingPariah] and will be fleshed out into a full fic in the future ^^

Nile was bleeding. It covered Booker’s hands, the thick iron scent choking him with every frantic breath. 

And it didn’t stop.

“I will shoot your little friend again—” The hammer clicked, and the gun was pressed to Booker’s temple, “—if you don’t give me what I want.”

They didn’t know. Just another random mugging that had played out a thousand different ways in a thousand different cities, except now Nile’s hand was like a vice on his wrist, and she wouldn’t stop bleeding.

“Please.” Booker’s voice broke, desperate and hollow. “Don’t do this.”

“Booker,” Nile whispered, grip tightening just once.

* * *

“Give me that.”

Quynh snatched the gun from Booker’s unprotesting hands—they fell limp at his side, face turned away from them—levelling it at Andy’s head.

“You took everything from me.”

The shot rang out, echoing in the empty warehouse, and Booker flinched as if struck. Quynh staggered, blood splatter warm on her face, and fell to her knees. Her finger twitched on the trigger. 

“Boss!” Nicky slung the sniper rifle onto his shoulder, moving to press his hands against the fresh gunshot wound in Andy’s stomach, a neat through-and-through. But she didn’t move, watching the light fade from Quynh’s eyes.

* * *

“What was he thinking?” 

Joe’s voice echoed down the hall, dragged out by Nile at a word from Nicky after he punched Booker. Booker didn’t look towards the doorway. He watched Nicky, entranced by the cold fury in the other’s eyes.

“Vita mia will forgive you.” Nicky’s voice was soft, the hair at the back of Booker’s neck prickling. “Because he is a good man, a far better man than this world deserves.”

Booker tried to speak, but Nicky cut him off with a look. 

“You will beg for his forgiveness. You will pray he accepts, because I will not.”

* * *

“A human shield.”

“Shut up!” The would-be hostage taker hissed, dragging Nicky with him even as the man stumbled, leg broken and bone pressing through his trousers. 

“My love, anytime now!”

Nicky recoiled as the shot slammed through his stomach, teeth sinking into his lip to muffle his howl as he stumbled. 

Joe caught him, gun discarded as he ran forward.

“Habibi, I’m sorry. My heart breaks at hurting you—” Joe’s words trailed away, eyes wide as he stared at Nicky’s leg—still broken—and the gunshot wound—bleeding crimson over his hands.

“I’m sorry,” Nicky whispered, words slurred. “I couldn’t tell you.”

* * *

Quynh’s grin was cold, merciless, but Andy could see traces of the woman she loved, the woman she had mourned for lifetimes in the expression.

“You left me,” she hissed in a language that had been dead for centuries, so old Andy had almost forgotten it.

“I’m sorry.” The words were offered up as penance, the bruises and blood covering Andy, lip stinging and copper coating her tongue. Mortality was terrifying, but she could hide it for a while longer.

Quynh’s face softened, and, for a moment, Andy felt the flicker of hope in her chest. The slap killed it.

* * *

The gun burned as it pressed into his shoulder wound. It stopped it from healing, although the man didn’t know that, Joe’s skin fusing to the metal and tearing with every tremor of his hand. 

“You don’t know what you’re doing.” Joe caught a flash of wide brown eyes, so young to be in this life, and felt the weight of his years settle on his shoulders. “Go. Now. And we won’t follow.”

“I can’t.”

Joe peered up, before shrugging. “So be it.”

His hand tightened just enough and the bullet flew through Joe’s shoulder—and into the boy behind him.

* * *

“Time does fly.”

Nile met Joe’s eyes in the mirror, a brief glance before her gaze snapped back to the road—a habit she couldn’t shake even after a century of immortality. Andy drummed her fingers against her knee, sunglasses hiding the small furrow on her brow. 

“Are you two sure you’re going to be okay? You can step out—”

“Thanks, boss, but—” Nicky kissed Joe’s knuckles, the other man curling onto his lap the moment they were away from the cameras. “We get why Booker did it.”

“Understand, forgive but don’t forget.” 

Nile nodded, leaning forward as the turning approached.

✦

“I wasn’t sure if I would be seeing you all today.”

The back of Nile’s neck prickled, glancing sideways at Andy who wordlessly took the lead as they slipped into Booker’s apartment. It was well lived in, dishes resting on the table, cupboards hanging ajar with age. 

“Wine?” Booker turned away, almost reluctantly, gaze darting away for a fraction of a second before he looked back.

“Yes?” Joe said, his grip turning white on Nicky’s hand. Nicky smoothed a hand over his shoulder blades, eyes darting around the small flat.

“I tried that little cafe you mentioned? It was nice.”

✦

“What’s the matter?”

Booker took a long careful drag from his cigarette, the end glowing cherry red in the setting sun.

“It’s night.” He punctuated it with a shrug, as if the reason for his melancolony was obvious. 

“It is,” Andy agreed, swirling her untouched wine round and round the glass like a tempest.

They’d been on the back foot all day, missing what felt like three quarters of the conversation but Booker had looked so painfully delighted, like an injured puppy. 

“You’ll be going soon.”

“Nope,” Andy countered, Joe leaning further forward..

“You will. You’re just hallucinations after all.”

✦

Nicky was a man suited to stillness but he remained a blur of motion, Italian flying too fast for Nile to understand as he cooked, passing her items to chop or stir with a practiced air. Booker was curled on the couch, held by Joe, a gentle susurrus as they argued.

“You’re not real. You can’t be,” Booker insisted, squeezing Joe’s fingers tight as if that would make him disappear. 

“We are real,” Joe insisted, kissing Booker’s temple, eliciting a broken sob from the man, holding him closer. 

“How can you be?” Booker hissed. “How can you all forgive me?”

**Author's Note:**

> [ My Tumblr!](https://inkformyblood.tumblr.com) Requests are always welcome!  
> 


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